The main character, a high school student, comes home after school and finds two red bean buns and a note his mom left on the kitchen table.
“Share them with your younger sister. Have one each.”
After reading the note, he eats one of the buns right away. However, he doesn’t feel satisfied with one and ends up eating the other, which was for his sister, despite his mom’s note. To remove the proof, he throws away his mom’s note in the trash can.
After some time, his younger sister comes back home and finds the mom’s note thrown away. She gets angry, and an argument begins. The brother thinks it is a simple matter that will be solved if he apologizes and buys her a red bean bun, but the problem isn’t that simple. Demanding her red bean bun, the younger sister says,
“You ate two, so I need to eat two, too! So buy me two buns.”
The brother cannot be convinced by his sister’s insistence.
“One was mine. So I just need to give one to you. It’s unquestionable that I need to buy you one.”
Showing an obvious difference of opinion, the two siblings fail to accept each other’s opinion. They keep running in parallel without coming to an agreement. Then, how was their argument solved? The story ends as the sister falls asleep on the desk while studying, and the brother quietly leaves two red bean buns by her head.
This is the story of a short movie titled “Red Bean Bun Theory.” Everybody may have experienced getting upset because of the difference in opinions with their family, or friends, or strangers. If there is no clear answer and it is an argument that is hard to tell what is right and what is wrong, the argument drags as both keep insisting on their opinions one after another. It is because people’s emotions are complicated, and the right or wrong of many things that happen between people cannot be determined perfectly as if you were cutting a tofu into cubes. But if you still try to confront the other with a stubborn attitude to prove who’s right and who’s wrong and only insist on your insistence, then not only does the problem fail to be solved, but feelings of both are hurt. Sometimes, a good key to solve the problem is not to prove who’s wrong and who’s right, but to humble yourself first and hold out your hand. Just like the story of the short film where yielding and consideration, not the number of buns, solved the problem.
The Bible emphasizes the importance of loving and respecting brothers and sisters first (Ro 12:10). Even though we may disagree with each other, if we yield first with a heart of consideration and heartwarming words, brotherly love buds and a flower of unity blooms. And there God bestows His blessing, even life forevermore.